By JOHN MacCALMAN,
Municipal Correspondent
AS POLICE began preparing a detailed report for the procurator-fiscal
on Wednesday's helicopter crash at Eastwood, Strathclyde's Deputy Chief
Constable, Mr Peter Mitchell, announced that the police helicopter
service had been suspended.
Residents were returning yesterday to all but five of the 21
retirement flats which were evacuated, as Strathclyde's Chief Constable,
Mr Andrew Sloan, flew back 24 hours early from a conference in
Washington for a briefing on the incident.
There was no suggestion at yesterday's meeting of the region's police
and fire committee that the helicoper evaluation project, due to run
until the end of March, should be abandoned.
The last of the wreckage was yesterday taken to a police depot. At the
weekend, it will be transported to Farnborough for examination.
The questions about the wisdom of flying the single-engined Bell
JetRanger helicopter in blizzard conditions and whether the crash was
caused by the conditions or mechanical failure will be tackled in
private by a Department of Transport inquiry.
A decision on a fatal accident inquiry, which would make the facts
public, will be taken by the Crown Office once all the facts are known.
Mr Mitchell hinted to the committee yesterday that it might be
possible to provide limited air support to the force within the next few
days.
However, it is assumed that it will be some weeks before there is a
return to the level of air cover that had been provided since the start
of the evaluation period on November 1.
Chairman of the committee Councillor William Harley, extended sympathy
to the family of Sergeant Malcolm Herd, a father of four who died in the
accident, and the two other police officers and the civilian pilot who
were injured.
Inspector John Muir and Sergeant William Shields were able to walk
from the wreckage, but the pilot, Mr Graham Pryke, of Liddesdale Avenue,
Paisley, was severely injured.
He was in a critical condition in the Southern General Hospital with
severe multiple injuries. Inspector Muir, of East Kilbride, and Sergeant
Shields, of Giffnock, are expected to be released today from the
hospital.
The accident happened in blizzard conditions as the helicopter flew to
the scene of an armed robbery. Its rotor blades are believed to have
clipped the side of a three-storey block of pensioners' flats before it
fell about 70ft to the ground.
The helicopter was a Bell JetRanger, used for Radio Clyde's traffic
reports. The aircraft normally used by the police, a MBB Bolkow 105 DB,
leased from Clyde Helicopters Limited, had been taken off operations.
A full inquiry will be conducted by the Air Accident Investigation
Branch on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport.
In addition, a preliminary report on the accident was being prepared
yesterday by a senior Strathclyde police officer to be followed by a
detailed report to the procurator-fiscal.
The police and fire committee yesterday was to consider an interim
report assessing the value of the helicopter service. The report pointed
out the great value to the force in a whole range of activities,
including searching for missing persons, monitoring traffic patterns,
carrying out anti-crime patrols and assisting in the policing of
football matches.
However, because of the crash, the committee agreed to continue
consideration of the report.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article